Calais migrant crisis: UK Foreign Affairs Committee chief Crispin Blunt blames French 'failure'

The head of the UK's Foreign Affairs Select Committee has blamed the French authorities for "failing" to combat the migration crisis in Calais after at least 1,500 people attempted to gain access to the UK through the Channel Tunnel, reportedly resulting in the death of a young Sudanese man.

Crispin Blunt told IBTimes UK: "This situation has arisen because of the continued French failure to deal with this situation before it has become a crisis. If this was reversed and these migrants were in Britain trying to get into France, we would have taken our responsibilities more seriously than the French. These people would have been detained and deported."

Blunt, who is also a Conservative MP, warned the French authorities have created a "massive problem" for the UK and themselves by "deciding to dump the problem on Britain".

The 55-year-old's comments come after David Cameron promised to give £7m ($10.9m) of funding to improve security around the Eurotunnel across the English Channel in a bid to stop migrants jumping on lorries heading to the UK.

Blunt said he had not seen any evidence to criticise the British government's measures but said ministers had a "judgment to make about what they say about French action or inaction".

Meanwhile, Ukip has called on Cameron to triple the UK's border agency staff in Calais and draft in Army personnel in a bid to combat the crisis. Steven Woolfe MEP, Ukip's migration spokesman, told IBTimes UK the situation was a "national emergency and a humanitarian crisis".

"Britain and Calais are under siege from the largest migration move that we have ever seen in our history," he said. "This is stemming from, as the UN says, a million people trying to get form places such as Libya all the way across the coast to Turkey to Europe to Italy, Greece and Hungry, just to name a few.

Woolfe argued the migrants has been pushed to make the "desperate" move ahead of the harsh weather of winter. He added: "The British government should second the Army in to help border agency staff and triple the agency staff in Calais to do search and border agency work to ensure that migrants don't break through into shipping and lorries."

'Long-term plan needed'

The SNP has also warned the situation is "becoming out of control" but the nationalists urged Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May to adopt a long-term strategy to tackle the crisis.

Stuart McDonald MP, the SNP spokesman in Westminster for immigration, asylum and border control, told IBTimes UK: "It's a difficult and challenging situation but we are lacking a long-term strategy in how to resolve the situation in Calais.

"We have seen repeated announcements from the government about investment and contingency plans, but it's the same problems over and over again."

McDonald, who is also a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, added: "Until the two governments start working together to decide what happens to the 5,000 people that appear to be in Calais, we simply just move the problem to somewhere – it isn't going to go away."

May will chair a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee today (29 July) to decide with top ministers and security officials what the UK's response to the escalation in the migrant crisis will be. Cameron, during his trip to Singapore, said his government is working "very closely" with its French counterparts, but the prime minister said the crisis was not a "satisfactory situation".

He added: "There's no point trying to point fingers of blame, it's about working with the French, putting in place these additional security measures, adding in the investment where that's needed."